Visual c++

[KonfusedKenny]

Hey all

I have a problem... To all intents and purposes I'm a Visual C++ novice, with only little knowledge of C++ in general. I was wondering how long some of the more experienced contributors here think it takes to become reasonably proficient in producing usable applications?

Cheers
Kenny

[Andreas Masur]

[Moved thread]

[Andreas Masur]

Well...this is the kind of question which is pretty hard to answer. It depends on many things like

How fast can you learn new stuff (and understand)
What is your background (any language at all?)
What do you consider as an usable application?
How much time do you spoent each day to learn?

and so on...

The learning curve for building GUI applications with Visual C++ is of course higher and steeper than with e.g. Visual Basic. However, it is also not impossible. I usually tend not to give any exact timeframes, nevertheless, I would estimate at least a year to get all the internals etc. of the Win32 and/or MFC - given the fact, that you have same hours left more or less each day.

One advice I would give though...do yourself a favour and start by learning the language itself first before moving on to the Windows programming (like GUI's with MFC). The drawback of doing it the other way round is that you will soon be lost due to the simple fact that the basics are missing...

[KonfusedKenny]

Thanks Andreas. Your considered opinion is greatfully appreciated.

Basically, I'm doing a PhD in developing hardware for image work. However this requires preparing image data in such a way for it to be manipulated in a variety of ways. I have some simple programming experience with Turbo Pascal and C, but more in VHDL for hardware design.

I'm certainly capable of learning (and quickly when needed, which in this case it is). You are right about the steep learning curve as there does appear to be a lot to take in with Visual C++, which has left me (up til a few days ago) somewhat concerned, given I'm needing to make fast progress.

You are completely right about the basics. I've spent some time going over them and things are beginning to make sense. No doubt I'll have a few questions, but I'm getting a better idea from posts I'm seeing etc about how things work. What I'm trying to isn't that difficult in principle, but a lack of understanding of a few things, both about c++ and also the compiler have caused me much confusion and concern.

Thanks for your thoughts, as I think I can now have a better idea of how to go about getting where I need to be.

Cheers mate
Kenny